Art

Seeing the World Differently Whether you create art or study the creations of others, art classes can change your life.

"I can't draw a straight line." If you've ever used this excuse, you're not alone. Many teens never consider taking art classes. But there are plenty of good reasons to include art in your schedule.

Exercise Your Brain

Art class can help you become a more interesting and confident person. "Something happens in the brain when you study art," says Honee A. Hess, director of education at the Worcester, Massachusetts Art Museum. "Studying art helps to sharpen your creative, analytical, and critical thinking skills."

Surprised? Here's how the process works. Let's say that in ceramics class you create a bowl. When you're done, your teacher will help you evaluate it. What about the bowl is good? What doesn't "work"? How did your original idea change as you worked with your materials? In answering these questions, you analyze the object you created and the skills you used.

When you study art, you learn to observe the world around you. You also learn to ask and answer probing questions, according to Eldon Katter, editor of School Arts Magazine. You'll learn that complex situations need thoughtful decisions. You'll find that problems can have more than one solution, and that things can be accomplished in different ways. This kind of thinking exercises the brain in a variety of ways.

Create Art

"There's a sense of power" in starting with an idea and ending up with an object, says Shawna Erickson, director of program development for Worcester Center for the Crafts in Worcester, Massachusetts. Of course, your product won't be perfect. But remember that it's just an experiment in paper and paint, wood, or clay. After you analyze your work, you can try again.

Drawing, ceramics, and other classes where you produce art are called studio art. You'll learn the principles of design and how the eye moves when it looks at an object. You'll learn why some designs are more appealing than others. You'll learn how to use color to achieve a particular effect. All of this will change the way you "see." You'll also develop fine motor skills and any skills particular to the art you're studying. "You'll gain confidence in taking healthy risks, which improves self-esteem," says Erickson. Bring Past and Present Together

In art history or art appreciation classes, you won't make anything. Instead, you'll apply artistic principles. You'll learn how people in the past used materials to express their emotions and to create beautiful and useful objects. In the process, you'll learn how the world has changed over the centuries, and how it's the same. For many people, art history is the most interesting and enjoyable way to learn about the past.

Studying art history affects your everyday life, says Dr. Craig Roland, an art education professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He says that art reminds you that since the beginning of time, human beings have felt love, sadness, and anger. They have lived in times of peace, war, crisis, and disaster. In art history classes, you contemplate images that were made by artists at these different times. When you see modern images reflecting similar events or feelings, the past and present come together. You feel the flow of history. "Not long ago I was walking with my dog," remembers Roland. "A child had drawn a rabbit on the pavement in chalk. Suddenly I thought about cave paintings done 25,000 years ago. Because of art, I crossed a boundary of time and place."

Art's Practical Side

There are practical reasons to study art as well. "We're a very visual culture," says Roland. Training in art helps you interpret our culture and the images that bombard us, he explains. It helps you become a better consumer of visual culture found on computers, the Internet, and television. You'll enjoy museums more, too.

If you take a ceramics class, you'll know how to look at things made of clay. You'll learn what's easy to do and what's difficult, what makes a piece of pottery well made or poorly made. Photography classes will teach you how to look through a camera lens, and how that's different from looking with your eyes alone. For the rest of your life, your photo albums will display your skill.

Whether you like making things or just want to become a more interesting person, art classes can teach you important skills. What's more, they're fun! Next time you have a chance to take an art class, give it a try.

By Hanna Geshelin From Classroom to Living Room

"People are afraid of color," says Caitlyn Ahlquist, an interior decorator with Barbara Herman Interiors in Worcester, Massachusetts. "Their homes reflect this. I'm not, though. I studied color theory in college and experimented with color in art classes.... People come to me afraid. I suggest colors, and they're thrilled with the results."

As a textile design student at Syracuse University, Ahlquist took basic art classes, including painting and drawing. "I'm terrible at drawing," she admits. But she loved all the classes where she made things: handbags, shoes, jewelry. Some of her experiments in class worked, some didn't. She learned from her mistakes as well as her successes. "l learned about texture, line, and design as well as color. These are all elements that I use in decorating a room." The analytical ability and critical thinking skills that she honed in art classes help her figure out why a room doesn't look its best, what will improve it, and how to explain all of this to her client.

"As an interior decorator, I use art all day long. But lots of people use art in their work," she says. "When the upholsterer decides how to lay out fabric on furniture for the best effect, he's using art skills. People who make false teeth are creating smiles. And I sure wouldn't want a plastic surgeon working on me if he didn't know a lot about design."

Source: Career World, Nov/Dec2003, Vol. 32 Issue 3, p20, 2p